Archive for July, 2008

Hancock is Will Smith’s newest film that attempts a needed twist on the superhero genre. A twist that works pretty well and Smith, unlike other contemporary stars like Tom Hanks, realizes that he can hold onto the dark side of his character without driving off audiences. Smith has figured out how to physically hold onto his characters, in his shoulders, his facial expressions, while maintaining all of the reasons why we like to watch him on screen. He’s not only a damn good actor, but he’s a smart one, unafraid to try new things and to fully commit to what’s happening on screen. Would Mr. Hanks throw out the F-bomb so casually to a crowd of people and still remain the most likable person on screen!?

Wall E the newest film from Pixar comes about as close to movie euphoria as any film I’ve seen in a long time. It’s the first film that’s allowed me feel the vastness of space and the imagination since E.T. There have been a lot of other parallels drawn to Spielberg films, and while there are similarities between what director Andrew Stanton has done with this animated masterpiece and things of a Spielbergian nature, i.e. the epically vast spaces, love of films referenced, joy of history, fascination with things we don’t understand, longing for human connection, Andrew Stanton does something here that Spielberg seems to have a hard time grasping.

He handles themes and ideas with such a subtle use of visual storytelling that they don’t need to be talked about by the characters and explained to us through exposition. The ideas are lived and breathed by the characters. They are presented on the screen in a way that when kids now go back to watch it in 20 years, they won’t hate themselves for loving this movie.